U.S. President Donald Trump flaunted a new helipad on the White House South Lawn Wednesday while taking reporters on a tour of its extensive renovations
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Trump spoke for several minutes about the granite being laid and said the chopper landing area would impress visiting foreign leaders, noting that the granite he had selected could withstand 35,000 pounds per square inch of pressure before signing it and inviting some construction workers to join, The Associated Press reported
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“That’s stone that, if you took a hammer and you started hammering right now — all day long — you wouldn’t see a mark on it, literally, that’s the kind of power it is,” Trump said, adding that the granite he used “has a million-year life” and predicted that it “will never break. It will never leak. It will never do anything.”
“Nature is stronger than what the human can produce,” Trump said of the granite. “It’s really pretty amazing.”
The president also revealed he had replaced a walkway from the the White House’s diplomatic entrance and part of the asphalt driveway encircling the South Lawn with white granite
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“One thing I know how to do is build,” he told reporters
Trump regularly shares updates with the White House press pool on his long list of renovation projects. Last year, he appeared on the roof of the briefing room to survey a future construction site, and earlier this summer, he took reporters for a closer look at the ballroom construction site
On Aug. 7, a federal U.S. appeals court ordered the Trump administration to halt construction on the $400-million ballroom, located on the site where the White House’s East Wing once stood, on the grounds that the project required congressional approval
The appeals court stayed its ruling for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Friday, Trump’s solicitor general petitioned for permission to resume construction
Trump previously said the area beneath the ballroom would double as a secure underground military complex
His administration even unsuccessfully sought $1 billion in congressional funding to make military improvements to the structure, the Associated Press reported
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Court blocks Trump’s White House ballroom
During this week’s tour, Trump called the work he was overseeing “very exciting.”
“This will be here long after we’re gone,” Trump said of the projects. “No matter what happens with the world.”
Earlier this summer, Trump vowed to restore the Lincoln Memorial pool to its former glory, but within days of completion, algae overtook it, and its freshly-painted surface began peeling
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The president also spoke about grass and praised Scotts-Miracle-Gro. The company’s former CEO donated $1 million to repair the grass on the White House lawn after it was damaged by Trump’s 80th birthday UFC fight in June
Earlier in August, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. president had, all told, mentioned grass at at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months — or at least once every 12 days
Other construction projects spearheaded by Trump include building a 250-foot “Triumphal Arch” in Washington, D.C. and renovating the Kennedy Center, which he also renamed after himself
–with files from the Associated Press
